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Tuesday, March 18, 2025
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Kirsten Wegner Takes Helm of Index Industry Association

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Kirsten Wegner

The index industry is at the heart of one of the most exciting shifts in modern finance—democratizing investing, according to Kirsten Wegner, the newly appointed CEO of the Index Industry Association (IIA).

Wegner, who joined the IIA last week, told Traders Magazine that what truly attracted her to the organization was its mission: “By enabling greater access to markets and driving cost-efficiency through passive investing vehicles, the index industry is playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of investing.”

Based in Washington, D.C., Wegner is a financial industry expert, lawyer, and bipartisan consensus builder. She has more than 20 years of experience working with regulatory agencies, Congress, and leading collaborative education and advocacy initiatives with policymakers, the media, investors, and other key stakeholders.

Previously, Wegner spent eight years at the Modern Markets Initiative (MMI), with the last seven as CEO, where she led advocacy initiatives on public policy, educated key stakeholders, and built consensus on issues surrounding fintech, artificial intelligence, and market automation.

Before that, she was the Government Relations Director at the International Securities Exchange, where she established political and policy strategy for the first all-electronic options exchange. Earlier in her career, Wegner was a practicing lawyer focused on the financial services and technology industries and also spent three years in broadcast media.

Wegner believes that her leadership strength lies in consensus building. “I thrive on bringing diverse perspectives together to find common ground and create unified strategies,” she said.

“With the IIA’s constituency spanning 17 member firms across three continents, it’s a privilege to lead such a globally diverse organization,” she added.

As the new CEO, Wegner will work with the IIA’s 17 member firms and its Board of Directors to set high-level strategic direction, lead the IIA’s public policy and communications initiatives, serve as the index industry spokesperson, and represent the IIA in front of policymakers, regulators, investors, and other key industry stakeholders.

“Among my focuses is expanding educational outreach—including studies, data, and scientific analysis—to inform conversations about the positive impact of index firms on the investing ecosystem, and the net positive impact for everyday investors, in terms of cost savings, transparency, and market integrity,” she commented.

Broadening the IIA’s audience is her key priority for her first year—to reach not just asset managers, but also everyday investors saving for college, retirement, and other milestones, so they understand the positive impact of index firms in the role they provide as transparent and independent measurements on which index funds are based, she said.

The index industry has evolved rapidly in recent years, Wegner said: “I think we’re seeing a shift in some areas—like in parts of Asia and Europe—moving from a savings mindset to an investing mindset. I’m excited for the positive role the index industry may play in this trend of democratizing investing to a broader demographic.”

“As the passive investing trend continues to grow, we’ll see increased demand for related services that index providers offer—such as data solutions and custom index solutions forming the basis for benchmarks,” she added.

Building on the IIA’s achievement of a presence on three continents, she plans to deepen relationships with educators and policymakers on their issues in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

“Challenges can be tackled by being open and having transparent data available for decision-makers,” she stressed.

Many of the independent index providers in the world are members of the IIA, including Bloomberg Indices, CBOE Global Indices, the Chicago Booth Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), China Bond Pricing Co., China Securities Index Co. Ltd., FTSE Russell, Hang Seng Indexes, ISS-STOXX, JPX Market Innovation and Research (Tokyo Stock Exchange), Korea Exchange, Morningstar, MSCI, NASDAQ OMX, Parameta Solutions, Shenzhen Securities Information Co., and S&P Dow Jones Indices.

IIA members administer over three million indices for their clients, covering many asset classes, including equities, fixed income, and commodities.

Part of the IIA’s mission is to consider ways to promote best practices for index providers, which makes it a natural supporter of appropriate and proportionate industry standards.

“I’m excited for the IIA to convene a broad group of stakeholders to explore policy questions, promote thoughtful discussion, and build consensus in the coming year. The financial ecosystem is interconnected, and I’m excited for the IIA to promote open and transparent conversations between stakeholders,” Wegner concluded.

TMX Launches US Equity ATS 

By
Editorial Staff
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Off-exchange US equity trading volumes have increased in recent years, and upstart alternative trading systems such as IntelligentCross, PureStream, and OneChronos have captured material market share. 

Effective January 22, there’s a new player in the space: AlphaX US, operated by Toronto-based exchange group TMX. The venue was announced today.

“We’ve been seeing a very small number of standalone ATS venues emerge and we’ve watched that piece of the pie grow,” said Heidi Fischer, President of TSX Alpha US, which operates AlphaX US. “We believe it will continue to grow, and we’re offering a good addition to what’s out there.”

In an interview with Traders Magazine, Fischer said AlphaX US differentiates itself as an auction model that incorporates counterparty segmentation, whereas most ATS venues that do counterparty segmentation are not auctions.

“How we’re looking at counterparty tiering within segmentation is also different from others,” Fischer said. “In today’s marketplace, tiering is primarily one size fits all. We are allowing participants to customize tiering to the duration that matters to them from a performance perspective.”

“A Participant might care about their markouts at 15 minutes, or one second, or two seconds,” she continued. “We want to present that customization for the sell side in our venue.”

Fischer said there will still be monthly tiering, but the contra-tiers will be based on what execution duration the participant cares about and tailored to how they view performance. Tiering will not be available on day one; it will be introduced after sufficient trading data is generated.   

She also said AlphaX US’s pricing model is different, as it prices trades at the midpoint of buyer and seller prices, whereas most auctions price at the midpoint of the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO).

AlphaX US is the first venue expansion outside of Canada for TMX Group’s Markets division and it will trade US-listed securities only (Reg NMS). Fischer said the launch is a culmination of two to two and a half years’ planning.  

“We’ve seen independent ATSs coming into the market with innovation and improving execution quality, and they have been growing,“ she said. “We fit into that bucket and we have a strong parent company with over 150 years’ experience in building markets, strong funding, and great technology. We’re focused on not only improving execution quality, but also partnering with our participants and providing a custom and tailored execution experience.”

Trump Appointments Spark Market Speculation

By
Anna Lyudvig
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With the Trump administration taking office this Monday, capital markets are focusing on how his government appointments, including executive posts at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Reserve, may impact bank regulations and the broader capital markets.

Kenneth Bentsen, SIFMA
Kenneth E. Bentsen

“With the new administration and its plans to pause much, if not all of the pending rule-making [there are almost 20 pending SEC Rule proposals], we expect a far different posture towards regulation and rule-making, which we would view as a positive,” said Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., President and CEO of SIFMA, during the annual media briefing on January 21.

“Among our key focus will be hopefully a more rational capital and liquidity framework that recognizes the dramatic changes that have occurred since the global financial crisis, in particular, also recognizing the important role that banks play in the capital markets, as well as looking at areas around equity market structure, the growth of private markets, the growth of retail investment base and product offerings to that base,” he said.

Isaac Wheeler, Managing Director, Balance Sheet Strategy at Derivative Path, said that in general, a Trump presidency is likely to mean “less regulation by enforcement and greater regulatory clarity for financial institutions.”

“In areas of innovation in particular, many depositories have found themselves operating under rules that weren’t particularly well-defined, disincentivizing the level of innovation they were able to engage in,” he said.

“There is an expectation that Trump’s regulators will offer clearer boundaries around what financial institutions are and aren’t allowed to do,” Wheeler told Traders Magazine.

On Tuesday, January 21, the SEC announced that President Donald J. Trump had designated Mark T. Uyeda as Acting Chairman of the agency.

The President has previously stated he will nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to run the agency on a permanent basis.

Khody Azmoon

According to Khody Azmoon, CEO and Co-Founder, and Head of Business Development and Product Strategy at BLOX Markets, under the current three-member commission, advancing a regulation requires all commissioners to participate in the vote unless one is recused or disqualified.

Therefore, some challenges may arise for the current three-member commission in adopting significant rules or amending existing ones, given SEC quorum rules, he said.

“This situation could result in some potential political maneuvering for Paul Atkins’s confirmation hearing for the permanent SEC Chair position, but we believe President Trump made an excellent choice in appointing SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda as Acting Chair,” he said.

According to Azmoon, Mark Uyeda has prioritized promoting capital formation and innovation while protecting investors, particularly seniors, from fraudulent activities.

Additionally, his tenure with the SEC Staff, which began in 2006, reflects the experience and leadership qualities desirable in a permanent chair, he said.

It is also notable that Acting Chair Mark Uyeda was one of the SEC commissioners in September 2024 who unanimously voted 5-0 in favor of the equity market structure changes to Regulation NMS for Tick Sizes, Access Fees, and Better-Priced Order Transparency, he added.

“These changes are expected to enhance execution quality for the underlying retail investor by promoting tighter spreads, reducing exchange fees, and increasing fee transparency. Ultimately, we believe that Mark Uyeda as Acting Chair will be positive for the U.S. equities markets,” he said.

Benjamin Schiffrin

Benjamin Schiffrin, Director of Securities Policy, issued the following statement in connection with Better Markets’ new Fact Sheet, “Working-Class Americans Elected President Trump, and His New SEC Chair Must Take Action to Protect Them”.

“Last summer, at the Republican National Convention, Vice President-elect JD Vance said that his party was done ‘catering to Wall Street’ and would instead ‘commit to the working man.’ Yet the prevailing view is that the nomination of Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission will be a boon to Wall Street. That’s because Atkins has long advocated for deregulation, which often comes at the expense of the ordinary retail investor,” he said.

“So the question is whether, under President Trump, the SEC will favor Wall Street or the ‘working man’ and retail investors. Unsurprisingly, the messaging around Atkins’s nomination has not focused on his pro-Wall Street views. In nominating him, President Trump said that Atkins ‘is a proven leader for common-sense regulations,’” he said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Board announced on January 6 that Michael S. Barr will step down from his position as Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair for Supervision, effective February 28, 2025, or at such an earlier time as a successor is confirmed.

Isaac Wheeler

Wheeler commented: “Perhaps the most consequential appointment pending is that of the Fed chair, which could remain unannounced for some time.”

Barr was leading the U.S. initiative behind the Basel III endgame proposal, which aims to raise capital requirements for banks.

“If this selection aligns with Trump’s other regulatory appointments, markets may need to prepare for a shift in the Fed’s traditional reaction function,” Wheeler argued.

“The new Fed chair could mark a decisive change from the Bernanke-Yellen-Powell era’s mandate and drive greater interest rate volatility in the years ahead,” he said.

“Additionally, there is a general consensus that M&A activity will increase across the banking industry as a result of a more deal-friendly environment under the new administration,” he said.

A Letter From Julie Andress, 2025 STA Chair

By
STA
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By Julie Andress, KeyBanc Capital Markets

2025 STA Chair

It is with immense gratitude and a profound sense of responsibility that I begin my term as Board Chair of the Security Traders Association (STA). This moment reflects years of hard work, dedication, and commitment to the financial markets. I am deeply honored by the trust STA members have placed in me.

By way of introduction, my name is Julie Andress, a proud Cleveland native and graduate of John Carroll University. My career began in 2007 in New York at Bloomberg. In 2011, I returned home to Cleveland to join KeyBanc Capital Markets as a sales trader—a role I have embraced for the past 14 years. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of serving STA at both local and national levels, and I am passionate about its mission to support professionals in the financial services industry.

As we step into a new year, the financial markets face a period of significant transformation. A new administration, evolving geopolitical dynamics, rapid technological advancements, and regulatory changes have created an environment that is both challenging and ripe with opportunities. Adapting to change has always been essential to professional growth, and this year will be no different.

STA’s mission is to keep our members informed on industry trends while fostering a solutions-oriented mindset. As Chair, I am committed to ensuring STA continues to serve as a resource and advocate for our members. My primary focus this year will be broadening our reach across the industry in two ways.

The pandemic reshaped the geographical landscape of our profession, creating new hubs of financial activity in previously unexpected regions. Ensuring that every region has a voice at the table is imperative. This year, we launched our first chapter in Arizona—an exciting milestone for us as an organization and professionals in that region—and we will continue working to expand into other new or underserved areas. We will also collaborate with leaders in our affiliate regions to enhance inclusivity, particularly for members outside major financial centers.

Additionally, we will focus on significantly expanding our outreach to younger professionals. Their fresh perspectives and energy are vital to the future of our industry. New initiatives will be introduced to engage and integrate this next generation into our strategic vision, ensuring the continued success of our association.

Looking ahead, I am optimistic about the future of our industry. STA is a testament to the power of collaboration and the strength of collective expertise. Together, we will navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities ahead.

I would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped me reach this position. Past Board Chairs Jim Hyde, Chris Halverson, Katie McCallister, and Ryan Kwiatkowski have been invaluable mentors. I also want to thank the 2025 Board of Governors, Advisors and committee leadership for their commitment to serve and the STA Office—Dawn, Erin, and Jim—for their unwavering support. I know we will achieve great things together.

Finally, to all of you—thank you for entrusting me with this honor. I am excited about the journey ahead and committed to leading this association with dedication and integrity.

Here’s to a successful year for STA and its members. Thank you!

Outlook 2025: Anthony Amicangioli, HPR

By
Editorial Staff
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Anthony Amicangioli is Founder and CEO of HPR.

How do you differentiate yourself from peers in capital markets and how do you expect your position in the marketplace to evolve in the next few years?

Anthony Amicangioli, HPR
Anthony Amicangioli, HPR

HPR is a leading provider of capital markets infrastructure (CMI), comprised of both hardware and software-based products and services, for top-tier buy-side and sell-side firms and exchanges.

Since our founding in 2011, we have remained steadfast in building a comprehensive platform designed for simplicity and efficiency. This disciplined approach has enabled HPR to create solutions that meet diverse client needs; from our flagship enterprise risk solution and software-based market access gateways to hardware-based risk systems, ensuring seamless integration, scalability, and reliability in pricing and performance.

While most providers specialize in either hardware or software, our platform does both exceptionally well. It elegantly integrates hardware and software, in a proximity cloud service to deliver unprecedented speed, stability, and security. HPR intends to completely modernize the CMI electronic trading stack.

What was the highlight of 2024?

The theme for 2024 was growth, optimization, and globalization. Our platform set new records this year, trading over 19 billion shares in a single day – a true testament to its resilience and ability to handle the highest trading volumes.

In line with our vision to create the exchange platform of the future, we dedicated significant engineering resources to enhancing HPR Hypercube, our fully hardware-based matching engine, which outperforms current exchange architectures by a factor of 100 with a hardware package 1/10 the size and power consumption. Additionally, we reduced latency to 250 nanoseconds in our flagship Riskbot® solution for enterprise pre-trade risk management.

We have grown the sales, product, and marketing functions, and are actively engaging new market participants. We continued to onboard global, tier-1 banks on our enterprise risk stack. We also commercialized DatabotTM, our low-latency, market data solution. HPR is continuing to grow in new international markets across APAC, the Middle East, and Latin America. To support this effort, we launched operations in Sydney.

What are your expectations for 2025?

With the introduction of our hardware-based matching engine technology, Hypercube, we are establishing a brand-new normal for trading with one hundred times the power and performance. As such, requirements for performance solutions in other areas like market data and access will also increase. We expect 2025 to be a breakout year for us as demand for our offerings will accelerate as markets advance.

According to Coalition Greenwich’s Market Structure Trends to Watch in 2025, “ATSs are eroding on-exchange market share, nonbank market makers are picking up market share (and clients) from big banks, and capital markets fintech firms are doing both of those and more. These agile newcomers are leveraging cutting-edge technology, innovative business models and a customer-centric approach without the hangover of legacy technology and operational complexity.” With Hypercube, we believe HPR is a formidable and agile newcomer ready to disrupt the trading landscape as we know it.

We have already achieved great success in meeting our targets to address functionality and global geographic coverage. We plan to accelerate our efforts to provide a more seamless and unified solution across major asset classes in the second half of 2025. This will herald the completion of our three-axis plan to grow a comprehensive portfolio across regions and asset classes, while providing holistic capabilities for our partners.

How do you see financial technology changing in the next five years?

Top technology platform companies like Google and Amazon are racing to increase data center efficiency (power consumption, compute power per rack unit) as Moore’s law wanes. However, this trend seems to be unaddressed and all but unknown in the financial sector. This race will yield solutions with increased FPGA off-load technology as well as wholesale upgrades of legacy software applications to hardware-based appliances.

The current and prevalent notion that innovation is slowing and settling on the present legacy software stack-solutions fails to recognize that there is much more innovation to come as high-density hardware-based appliances begin to displace certain critical applications in the CMI space.

HPR is a major driver of this paradigm and is pioneering the future of capital markets. We built our entire suite of solutions with this in mind since inception. Our latest offering, the Hypercube, is a matching engine that consists entirely of hardware, which has never been done before. In a market where everyone is competing for the best orders, the Hypercube will usher in the next generation of electronic trading, democratizing markets and leveling the playing field for all participants.

TECH TUESDAY: IPO Revival Likely to Continue into Mid-2025

By
Phil Mackintosh and Michael Normyle, Nasdaq
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TECH TUESDAY is a weekly content series covering all aspects of capital markets technology. TECH TUESDAY is produced in collaboration with Nasdaq.

When we introduced the Nasdaq IPO Pulse a year ago, we said it suggested that U.S. “IPO activity… should remain in an uptrend” as we headed into 2024. 

Then, when we introduced the Nasdaq Stockholm IPO Pulse in September, we wrote that it “suggests [Stockholm] IPO activity… is likely to remain in an uptrend in the coming months.”

And now, it looks like our IPO Pulses were right!

2024 was a year of recovery for IPO activity in the U.S. and Stockholm

Following the earlier upturns in our U.S. and Stockholm IPO Pulses, actual IPO activity also recovered – in both the U.S. and Stockholm – in 2024.

According to Nasdaq’s data, the U.S. saw 179 non-SPAC IPOs in 2024 – the most since 2021, and a 40% increase over 2023 (127). By value raised (ex SPACs), it was an even better year, with value raised increasing over 50% from 2023 to $30 billion – also the most since 2021.

Plus, the year ended strong, with Q4 having the most non-SPAC IPOs in a quarter (53) in three years.

Sweden saw a more than 60% jump in IPOs in 2024 (23) compared to 2023 (14 IPOs). Sweden also closed the year strong, with Q4 having the most IPOs in a quarter (10) in 2½ years.

U.S. led global IPOs, followed by Asia, while some major markets lagged

Not only did the U.S. have a strong year for IPOs when compared to recent years, but also when compared to the rest of the world.

According to FactSet data (including SPACs), the U.S. had over 250 IPOs in 2024. 

After the U.S., the list was dominated by Asian (and Emerging) Markets, which took 12 of the top 14 spots. 

European markets rounded out the top 20 in the chart (Sweden took 15th place), but there are some major European economies missing from this list, including France and the Netherlands, which both fell outside the top 20.

Chart 1: U.S. leads global IPO activity in 2024, followed by Asian markets

U.S. leads global IPO activity in 2024, followed by Asian markets

Since most countries have very different sized economies and stock markets, it’s a little unfair to compare countries by a simple count of IPOs. 

A “fairer” comparison is to look at the percentage increase in listings due to IPOs in each country. We show that in the grey circles. By that measure, 11 countries – including the U.S. (5%) – were clustered in the 4%-6% range. The clear winners in 2024 were Macedonia (14%) and Saudi Arabia (12%). While China, Australia and the U.K. scored the lowest.

Nasdaq IPO Pulse near high, indicating continued uptrend in U.S. IPOs

Even though 2024 was the best year for U.S. IPOs in three years, some commenters think 2025 will be an even better year. Right now, the cyclical drivers of future IPO activity captured by the Nasdaq IPO Pulse look pretty supportive. 

While the IPO Pulse ticked down in December, it’s just off October’s 3¼-year high, suggesting U.S. IPO activity should remain in an uptrend into mid-year.

Chart 2: The Nasdaq IPO Pulse suggests IPO activity will hold up into mid-2025 

The Nasdaq IPO Pulse suggests IPO activity will hold up into mid-2025

Nasdaq Stockholm IPO Pulse off its high, but not yet signaling a downturn

For Stockholm, the IPO Pulse upturn has faded, but is not yet at the point that it’s clearly indicating a downturn is ahead.

The Nasdaq Stockholm IPO Pulse was in an unambiguous upturn through the first half of 2024, reaching a 2½-year high in June (chart below, blue line). Since then, it’s come off that high, but it remained above October’s eight-month low in December.

Chart 3: The Stockholm IPO Pulse sees a continued upturn in IPO activity into the spring 

The Stockholm IPO Pulse sees a continued upturn in IPO activity into the spring

Given this recent softening, we can test whether it’s truly signaling a downturn in IPO activity by comparing it to its past downturns. That’s because most of those past downturns genuinely anticipated downtrends in IPO activity, while a couple were false alarms.

Fortunately, based on that comparison, this recent slowing currently looks slightly more similar to historical false alarms, so the Stockholm IPO Pulse is not yet conclusively indicating a directional shift in IPO activity.

That means we should expect Stockholm IPO activity to stay in an uptrend for now, but our next update in April should help clarify whether a near-term downturn is likely.

U.S. and Stockholm IPO Activity likely to stay in uptrends into Q2 2025

2024 was a year of recovery for IPO activity in the U.S. and Stockholm. And based on our IPO Pulses, IPO activity looks likely to stay in an uptrend into mid-year – especially in the U.S.

Of course, a lot can change over the course of a year, so we’ll be updating our Nasdaq IPO Pulses each quarter to see if these uptrends will continue beyond mid-year, or if a directional shift lies ahead. 

Phil Mackintosh is Chief Economist at Nasdaq. Michael Normyle is U.S. Economist and Senior Director at Nasdaq.

Creating tomorrow’s markets today. Find out more about Nasdaq’s offerings to drive your business forward here.

ON THE MOVE: Kirsten Wegner to IIA; JPMorgan Chase Names Jennifer Piepszak

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Kirsten Wegner, MMI
Kirsten Wegner

The Index Industry Association (IIA) has appointed Kirsten Wegner as its new Chief Executive Officer. Wegner succeeds Rick Redding following his retirement after 13 years as the IIA’s CEO since its founding in 2012. In this role, she will work with the IIA’s 17 member firms and its Board of Directors to set high level strategic direction, lead the IIA’s public policy and communications initiatives, serve as an index industry spokesperson and represent the IIA in front of policy makers, regulators, investors and other key industry stakeholders. Previously, Wegner spent eight years at Modern Markets Initiative (MMI), with the last seven as CEO, where she led advocacy initiatives on public policy, educated key stakeholders and built consensus on issues surrounding fintech, artificial intelligence and market automation. Prior to that she was Government Relations Director at the International Securities Exchange and established political and policy strategy for the first all-electronic options exchange.

Jennifer Piepszak

Daniel Pinto, JPMorgan Chase’s President and Chief Operating Officer, who has served the firm for more than 40 years, has informed of his decision to retire at the end of 2026. Pinto will relinquish his responsibilities as President and COO as of June 30, 2025. This will allow him to effectively transition those responsibilities in the coming months. He will continue to serve the company as Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Chase working closely with and advising the CEO and other senior executives on key projects, client relationships and complex issues facing the firm. Jennifer Piepszak, Co-Chief Executive Officer of the Commercial & Investment Bank (CIB), has been named Chief Operating Officer of the company, effective immediately, working closely with Pinto over the next few months.

Corey Geis

Investcorp has announced that Neil Rickard, Managing Director and Head of Credit Research in Europe, will become Co-Head with responsibility for the European business, alongside Corey Geis, currently Managing Director and Head of Trading and Capital Markets in the US, who will become Co-Head with responsibility for the US business. Their new positions become effective April 1, 2025. Rickard has been a part of the Credit Management team in Europe since 2011. Prior to this, Neil worked at Mizuho Corporate Bank from 2005. Geis has been a part of the Credit Management team in US since 2017 and has almost three decades’ experience in credit, including at GoldenTree Asset Management and TD Securities. Both Jeremy Ghose and Tom Shandell are retiring from their current executive roles as global head Credit Management and head of liquid credit investments in the US respectively. From April 1, Ghose will step down to become non-executive Chairman of the business and continue to participate in various investment committees until his retirement on July 31, 2025, while Shandell will continue to provide support and continue to participate on the US credit investment committee until his retirement on June 30, 2025.

Apex Group has appointed Zion Hilelly as a new Chief Product officer, based in New York. Prior to joining Apex Group, Hilelly was the Head of Operations and Managed Services within S&P Global, where he ran multiple industry leading investment management solutions. Hilelly is BlackRock veteran having worked at the asset manager from its early days for over 20 years. As a Managing Director, Hilelly was responsible for launching, developing and leading many of the post-trade products and capabilities of the firm’s flagship Aladdin platform.

Scott Mitchell has been appointed Chief Executive Officer at InspereX. He succeeds John DesPrez III, who is retiring after serving as the firm’s CEO since his appointment in January 2015. Mitchell joins InspereX after a 20-year career at J.P. Morgan, where he held progressively senior positions across Equity Derivatives and Cross-Asset Structured Investments Sales and Marketing. He first joined J.P. Morgan in 2004 to co-head U.S. Third-Party Structured Investments Sales, launching the firm’s third-party distribution business, as well as its brokered CD platform.

FIA has hired Melissa Brunton as a new Senior Vice President of Global Events, Marketing and Communications. She joins the FIA team from the Direct Selling Association (DSA), where she served as SVP of Education and Meeting Services. In addition to hiring Brunton, FIA announced Will Acworth’s promotion to Global Head of Market Intelligence. 

Reid Cheyne has joined Pirum as Director of Fixed Income Sales, Americas. Reid brings over 25 years’ Securities Finance and Fixed Income experience in many leadership roles, ranging from trading and financing to sales and brokerage, across banks, broker dealers and interdealer brokers. Most recently, at Citi, Reid moved from directing Fixed Income Prime Services Sales to lead Financing Sales for Hedge Funds. Previously Reid held VP roles at Abbey National Securities and Citicorp Securities, as well as Managing Director at Capital Markets Engineering and Trading.

Droit has appointed Somerset Pheasant as Chief Strategy Officer. Somerset brings over 15 years of experience in the financial industry and served on the Droit board from 2016 to 2023. In his most recent role as Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, he managed the strategic investing business globally and established the European Firmwide Strategy team.

If you have a new job or promotion to report, let me know at alyudvig@marketsmedia.com

Outlook 2025: Dar Nazem, GTS

By
Editorial Staff
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Dar Nazem is COO of GTS.

What surprised you in 2024?

Dar Nazem

I joined GTS in the second half of 2024, so going in, I was aware that GTS made markets in over 10,000 global names and was powered by incredible technology. What surprised me was how the IP and technology stack could be leveraged for other businesses across our organization, enabling us to provide deeper liquidity and tighter spreads in the market. We are seeing significant synergies across the entire franchise.

What are your expectations for 2025?

We expect to continue growing our multi-asset client franchise businesses across Equities and FX. This spans everything from our ETF to Wholesale Market Making to FX businesses, as well as our NYSE Designated Market Making and Floor Broker activities. From the COO seat, we are focusing a lot of our efforts on operational excellence and simplifying workflows across the stack to facilitate faster decision-making—not just on the trading side but across the entire franchise, including front, middle, and back-office.

What are you most excited for in 2025?

There are two major themes we’re excited about and focused on: First, with the impending change of guard at the SEC, we look forward to seeing how market structure regulation will evolve under the new administration. Our Co-Founder and CEO, Ari Rubenstein, testified before the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets last year, clearly outlining GTS’s stance, and you’ll undoubtedly hear more thought leadership from GTS in 2025 regarding our market structure viewpoints and the impact to markets and specifically our trading partners and clients. We’re eager to continue to expand upon our expertise and data-driven approach to help clients tackle trading challenges while remaining a highly trusted counterparty.

Second, we have ambitious plans in place across all of our business units and our technology and operations organizations. We are particularly excited about growing our business units while continually calibrating the organization to ensure GTS is well-positioned to consistently deliver superior liquidity solutions while providing concierge-level client service.

Fund Managers Innovate to Unlock Retail Access to Private Markets

By
Shanny Basar
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Martin Small, chief financial officer of BlackRock, said creating a single managed account to provide access to private markets for financial advisors and their clients will be a “huge unlock.”

Retail wealth investors allocated $2.3 trillion to private markets in 2020 and are expected to increase their allocations to $5.1 trillion by 2025 according to a Morgan Stanley/Oliver Wyman Study. BlackRock expects managed model portfolios to roughly double in assets under management over the next five years, growing into a $10 trillion business.

Source: BlackRock

Small spoke about the asset manager’s aims to help wealth managers build long-term portfolios that blend public and private markets on BlackRocks’ results call on 15 January. He highlighted that wealth manager and retail allocations to private markets are currently in the low single-digits according to recent data from Cerulli Associates.

“We are focused on innovating to provide better access to private markets for wealth managers and retail investors across taxable and non-taxable accounts, and retirement accounts,” Small added.

In September 2024 BlackRock established a strategic partnership with private assets manager Partners Group to launch a model portfolio solution which provides access to private equity, private credit and real assets in a single portfolio, which is currently not available to the US wealth market. BlackRock’s alternatives team and whole portfolio capabilities powered by its technology platform, Aladdin, will be combined with Partners Group’s investment platform and portfolio management capabilities.

 Steffen Meister, Partners Group

Steffen Meister, executive chairman of Partners Group, said in a statement: “This separately managed account solution has the potential to revolutionize the wealth management industry, setting a new benchmark for institutional-quality programs that meet wealth investors’ private markets portfolio needs.”

Small continued that creating model portfolios with different risk tolerances that blend public and private assets and that manage the cashflows on a single subscription will be a “huge unlock.”  One of the barriers to adoption of private markets with wealth managers is the operational burden of managing multiple subscription documents, cashflows and distributions.

“We think a managed account can do that better and increase access,” Small added.

In contrast to the US, BlackRock launched an ‘evergreen’ private markets platform for wealth investors in Europe under the region’s Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) 2.0 structure, with initial funds in private equity and multi-alternatives. BlackRock also wants to launch evergreen funds in infrastructure and private credit. Small said Blackrock is looking at bringing similar evergreen structures to the US.

Partners Group launched the first US private equity evergreen fund in 2009, which is currently the largest in the market at $15.5bn. As of 30 June 2024, evergreen funds accounted for almost one third, 30%, of Partners Group’s global assets.

 Martin Small, BlackRock

“I think that the biggest opportunity ahead of us is to integrate semi-liquid products and private markets into our $300bn+ managed models and SMA (separately managed accounts) franchise,” Small added. “That would be the biggest unlock and I think it’s our competitive advantage.”

On 14 January 2025 Hamilton Lane, a private markets manager with more than $947bn in assets, and Republic, an investment platform for private market assets, announced that they intend to launch a digital blockchain-based solution for retail investors in the first half of this year. Hamilton Lane said data shows that the majority of private markets funds have outperformed their public market equivalents in 19 of the last 20 years.

“This partnership is believed to represent a major step forward in expanding access to this historically high-performing investment category and empowering retail investors with new wealth generation opportunities,” added Hamilton Lane.

ETFs 

The exchange-traded fund structure is also expected to play a greater role in allowing access to a broader range of alternative investments according to a report from Cerulli Associates in December 2024. In 2019 commodities and real estate ETFs made up two thirds, 65%, of what Cerulli defines as alternative category ETFs. In the second quarter of 2024 that fell to 37%, as derivative income, defined outcome, and cryptocurrency categories increased.

“Rapidly, the alternative investment offerings in the ETF structure have shifted from simple passive holdings to more active strategies that provide advisors with specific outcomes such as greater income and predefined return profiles,” said Cerulli.

For example, State Street and alternatives manager Apollo Global Management filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024 to launch an actively managed ETF that invests in public and private credit.

Morningstar, the asset manager research provider, said in a report: “Other ETFs have attempted to offer private credit exposure through public investments, but this one would be the first to hold private credit directly—a strategy that comes with challenges.”

Challenges include private credit being illiquid and valuations, as instruments rarely trade.

“The State Street-Apollo venture is sure to be just the first of many private-market ETF proposals,” said Morningstar. “BlackRock has announced a private-investment model portfolio with private equity firm Partners Group. Invesco and Goldman Sachs have kicked the tires on private investments in ETFs.”

 Daniil Shapiro, Cerulli

Cerulli’s research found that about half of advisors do not use alternative investments exposures due to a mix of concerns about liquidity, heightened fees, product complexity, and burdensome subscription/redemption processes on the illiquid side combined with a lack of liquid private capital product.

Daniil Shapiro, director of Cerulli, said in a statement: “While not a perfect replacement to illiquid private capital exposures, an ETF could be exactly the thing for a cohort of financial advisors looking to initiate use of true alternative investments exposures with greater operational ease.

Private markets outlook

Blackrock’s 2025 Private Markets Outlook said private markets allocations will continue growing across all client segments, especially wealth.

Source: BlackRock

“Allocations to private markets in wealth management remain in their infancy—just 1%-2% for individual investors and nearly zero for defined contribution systems globally,” added BlackRock. “Even modest increases will drive growth.”

Private credit and infrastructure currently make up about 20% of private markets, but by 2030 BlackRock expects this to grow to 30%. Private credit is being driven by firms diversifying their funding beyond banks to longer-dated liability investors such insurance, pensions, and wealth. Infrastructure is driven by the fiscal constraints of states with aging populations, the artificial intelligence and data center revolution and the energy transition.

BlackRock noted that democratization of private markets comes with challenges such as portfolio construction expertise to build diversification while providing a degree of liquidity; and the necessary modelling to predict cashflows, manage liquidity and optimize holdings.

 Source: Firebrand Research

“We are still in the early stages of this new phase in the private markets, with rapid developments in product design, regulatory frameworks, as well as the tools and solutions for clients,” said BlackRock.

 Nelson Chu, Percent

Percent, the private credit technology provider, said in its 2025 Private Credit Forecast that asset-based financing, such as merchant cash advances, trade receivables and equipment loans, is poised for significant growth; and that direct lending, including senior debt, mezzanine financing and unitranche loans, will remain a key driver for institutional investors.

Investors will also seek broader segmentation across deal types, company sizes and geographies to optimize risk-adjusted returns in both developed and emerging markets according to the report.

Nelson Chu, founder and chief executive of Percent, said in a statement: “As we enter 2025, banks’ entry into private credit signals the asset class’s resilience and appeal. Yet, the lower middle market remains a largely untapped frontier, where financing gaps left by traditional lenders are most pronounced.”

Myles Milston, co-founder and chief executive of  an automated capital markets platform Globacap, said in an email that private markets are growing at double the rate of public markets and advancements in technology are simplifying access.

“It’s not just asset managers driving this growth; we’ve seen significant increases in allocations from private wealth, pension funds, and more,” said Milston. “Private markets have evolved beyond merely being an inflationary hedge – they’re rapidly becoming the crown jewel of modern investment portfolios.”

Jefferies Raises $10m to Support Los Angeles Wildfire Relief

By
Press Release
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Jefferies announced that it will donate $10 million to charities providing aid for first responders and the people and communities impacted by the wildfires across Los Angeles.

The donation includes funds from Jefferies, voluntary contributions from its nearly 6,000 worldwide employees, and proceeds from the firm’s January 16 Doing Good Global Trading Day, which set aside 100% of net global trading commissions for charities.

Rich Handler, CEO, and Brian Friedman, President of Jefferies, said: “We are so grateful for how the Jefferies network stepped up to support those in need in Los Angeles. These wildfires have inflicted heartbreaking devastation on communities and so many families, and we hope this donation will help deserving charities provide urgently needed relief.”

OrganizationCharity DescriptionAllocation
Los Angeles Fire Department FoundationThe LAFD is actively seeking funds to equip LAFD members battling wildfires with tools and supplies.$2,000,000
All Hands and Hearts (AHAH)All Hands and Hearts is a volunteer-powered nonprofit that addresses the immediate and long-term needs of communities impacted by disasters.$1,000,000
Global Empowerment MissionDelivers emergency aid supplies such as non-perishable food items, water, hygiene products, and other life-saving goods such as temporary shelters, generators and medical supplies.$1,000,000
Habitat for Humanity Greater Los AngelesHabitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (Habitat LA) builds and repairs homes in partnership with hardworking, low income families and individuals.$1,000,000
PEF Eaton Fire Response FundEmergency fund to address the immediate needs and ensure resources reach local schools and families as they navigate this crisis.$1,000,000
The California Community FoundationA community foundation that addresses health, housing and economic development in Los Angeles County.$1,000,000
Pasadena HumaneProvides lifesaving programs and services for animals.$500,000
The Farmlink ProjectThe Farmlink Project connects farmers to communities facing food insecurities. The organization is partnering with LA communities to deliver truckloads of fresh produce within 24hrs to communities in need.$500,000
ChrysalisChrysalis serves people navigating barriers to the workforce by offering a job-readiness program, individualized supportive services, and paid transitional employment.$500,000
Saint John’s Fire Relief FundSupports hospital caregivers in Santa Monica who have lost their home or places of living due to the devasting fires.$500,000
Wags and WalksWorks to reduce euthanasia in local shelters and increase awareness of rescue dogs.$250,000
Baby2BabyDistributes emergency supplies for the most vulnerable children and families who have lost everything in the Los Angeles fires including diapers, food, formula, water, clothing, blankets and hygiene products.$250,000
A Sense of HomeWorks with foster youth to provide a home and a community.$250,000
Your Palisades ParkProvides the community recreational opportunities, places to meet and support one another, gather together, share meals and community in a safe environment for those displaced.$250,000

Total: $10 Million

Jefferies is committed to making a difference to better our global community. Jefferies has previously held Global Trading Days at times of need, which raised more than $70 million just in the past five years for charities responding to humanitarian crises and natural disasters.

Source: Jefferies

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